League Patch 7.24: Big champion changes will disrupt the meta one last time before season 8 begins

League of Legends Patch 7.24 arrives this week. Since it will be the last major patch before season eight begins in January, Riot is trying to fix up the meta with one last major push of champion changes.

Some champions, like Ezreal, Yorick, and Sona, seem like obvious candidates for big changes, but other changes are coming out of the woodwork for some less popular champions, like Karthus and Darius, and those changes are rather significant. Zoe, the game's newest champion, has been a thorn in the side of almost everyone since her release, so the balance team is taking a pass at her, too. There are over 20 champions being changed.

The meta will likely shift in a monumental way following this week's champion-focused patch—here's how.

The power of nerfs compel you

Sona, Ezreal, and Yorick have been on fire since the beginning of the preseason two patches ago. Ezreal has been at the very top of the champion ladder, not wavering below his top spot for the last month. His winrate is currently around 57 percent, and his playrate sits at over 20 percent, making him the strongest and one of the most popular champions in the game according to League stats site OP.gg.

Sona and Yorick aren't too far behind, and their insanely high damage is just too easy to land to ignore any further. Both champions, using their Q abilities, get amplified basic attacks that turn almost any trade to their favor, making them uniquely oppressive in the current meta. Yorick's OP runes are in the Resolve path—Grasp of the Undying and Demolish—and they boost his damage against champions and towers to a ridiculous level. Sona can run Aery, Kleptomancy, or Meteor and still remain too strong.

To put it bluntly, they're very annoying champions, and they need nerfs. Yorick's base attack damage is dropping by a bit, which may not be quite enough, but it will make sure his Q deals at least a little less damage. The mana cost is being increased on Sona's Q, and its base damage is also being lowered, but its AP scaling is going up slightly. Overall, that's a significant nerf to her laning power. Ezreal's Q will now scale less with his AD—down to 110 percent from 125 percent—resulting in much less overall damage. All three of these problem champions will be much less attractive now, aside from maybe Yorick.

LUL teh r4ndom XD

Menace—that's the first word that comes to mind when you think about League's newest, quirkiest champion, Zoe. Since her release last month, she's been downright terrifying, and she's risen through the ranks to become the game's most-banned champion. The reason? It's simple. She's too strong.

Spell Thief and Sleepy Trouble Bubble, her W and E respectively, are the targets of this wave of nerfs. This may come as bad news to players that think the damage dealt from her Paddle Star is her biggest issue, but regardless, she'll still be significantly weaker. The Summoner Spells that drop from minions and fuel her Spell Thief will now only last for 20 seconds on the ground, which is half the duration they last now.

Her Sleepy Trouble Bubble's cooldown will now only refund on champion hit, rather than when hitting anything. The slow it applies is being dropped to 20 percent, too, and it has a shorter range when passing through walls. The trap's radius is being lowered by 40 units, too.

These nerfs shouldn't be enough to make Zoe much less scary, as her damage is really what locks her in for bans, but they should help, even if only a little.

Buffs to misfit champions

In this patch, Riot is hoping to bring a lot of less-popular champions out of retirement by dishing out fairly large buffs. There are too many to dive into with detail, so we'll list them all in order of importance.

Zyra: Mana regen up to 11.5 per five seconds, up from 8.5 per five. Mana regen per level lowered to compensate. Plants last longer and have more health, but die instantly to melee attacks. Instead of buffing plant health, her W's cooldown now drops time when she kills an enemy.

Galio: Landing his taunt now deals damage, scaling up depending on how long he charges it.

Karthus: Ultimate ability will now scale with 75 percent of his AP, way up from 60 percent.

Evelynn: Her W's magic resist shred now applies to the attack that procs it.

Ivern: Health cost from passive dropped significantly.

Bard: Meep damage and base health regen increased.

Aurelion Sol: Ultimate cooldown lowered by 10 seconds.

Morgana: Mana regen up, mana regen per level down. Passive's spell vamp replaced by healing based on champion, large minion, and large monster damage dealt. When the new passive triggers, it drops the cooldown of her W by five percent.

Riven: Q base damage up by five.

Camille: Passive shield and Q recast duration increased slightly.

There are also a large wave of minor nerfs being doled out. Some of them lower base damage by five, others barely lower a stat, and some raise cooldowns just a little bit. Recipients of these very small nerfs include Ornn, Xin Zhao, Jarvan, Shen, Taric, Maokai, Malzahar, and Leona. Overall, these nerfs shouldn't do much to the meta, apart from possibly Xin's and Malzahar's, whose are slightly more potent than the rest.